Best Friend, Disease: Revision

Alex Mortberg
Professor Clapham
English 1001-126
9 December 2014
Malnutrition’s Best Friend, Disease: Revision
Malnutrition is more detrimental than the average person realizes. People assume that malnutrition only pertains to developing countries and that it’s due to poverty; however, malnutrition is everywhere and waiting to grip onto its next victims. It affects people around the world no matter what color skin or gender they are; malnutrition can affect anyone. Malnutrition affects the immune system of the body, which causes diseases to flourish. “Malnutrition is a state of nutrition in which a deficiency or excess (or imbalance) of energy, protein and other nutrients causes measurable adverse effects on tissue/body form (body shape,
Malnutrition is especially a concern in regards to children because it interferes with mental and physical development of the child. If children do not get adequate mental and physical development then the rest of their lives will be affected, granting them an abnormal life. According to the UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition World Nutrition Situation 5th report, stunting, which is the prevention of growing or developing properly, affects more than 147 million preschoolers in developing countries. The same report also shows that Iodine deficiency accounts for the world’s utmost single cause of mental retardation and brain damage. The World Food Program reports that undernutrition affects school performance and studies have shown it often leads to a lower income as an adult. The research scientists have conducted illuminates the severities that are brought about from malnutrition. Not only does malnutrition affect the immune system to make it weaker, it also affects the central nervous system and the development of the
Dr. Cameron reveals that “in developing countries, five million children a year die of conditions linked to malnutrition such as pneumonia” (Thomas). The conditions that children in developing countries are facing are due to the malnourishment of their bodies. Because the conditions are already present in the children from malnourishment, the steps to counteract the conditions worsen due to a weakened immune system. According to an article in The Economist, “nearly half of India’s small children are malnourished: one of the highest rates of underweight children in the world, higher than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa” (“Putting the Smallest First; Child Malnutrition in India”). Malnutrition puts a toll on India as it is “linked to half of all child deaths and nearly a quarter of cases of disease” (“Putting the Smallest First; Child Malnutrition in